NASA putting new eyes on Earth in 2014

By Matt Smith, CNN

Updated 9:37 AM ET, Thu January 23, 2014

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Photos:'Earth From Space'

'Earth From Space' – A new book of photographs, "Earth From Space," contains more than 150 high-resolution images shot from orbiting satellites. Seen from the perspective of hundreds of miles, many of Earth's features resemble abstract art. This image is of the Mauna Loa volcano on the big island of Hawaii.

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Photos:'Earth From Space'

'Earth From Space' – This is the Australian Aurora, a natural light display of the Southern Hemisphere, as seen from the International Space Station.

NASA announced an ambitious slate of launches Wednesday aimed at putting new eyes on the Earth and its atmosphere in 2014.

A total of five missions -- three satellites and two instruments that will be mounted on the International Space Station -- are scheduled to go into orbit between February and November, the U.S. space agency said. They'll measure carbon dioxide in the air, water in the soil, rainfall, cloud layers and ocean winds, providing "immediately useful" readings that will help improve both short-term weather forecasts and and long-term climate projections, said Michael Freilich, the director of NASA's Earth Science Division.

"This tremendous suite of five new instruments and missions that will be launching this year will truly reinvigorate our observing system and expand it," Freilich said.

The launches come two years after the National Academy of Sciences warned that budget pressure, program delays and launch failures had left scientists facing a "rapid decline" in Earth observations as the U.S. satellite fleet aged. NASA had called that 2012 report "overly pessimistic."

Freilich said Wednesday that six more missions were ready to launch by the end of the decade, including satellites that help measure the dynamics of the polar ice sheets and measure human use of water in aquifers.

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae has been found! – The Rosetta spacecraft's high-resolution camera took this image of the Philae lander on September 2, 2016. The lander is wedged into a dark crack on a comet, named 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko, hurtling through space. The discovery comes less than a month before the Rosetta mission's end.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae is wedged in a dark corner of Rosetta – "We are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team. She was the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from the Rosetta probe, according to the European Space Agency.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae found using images from Rosetta – The image is detailed enough that viewers can pick out features of Philae's 3-foot-wide (1 meter) body. Even two of its three legs can be seen.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

One of the primary objectives of the Rosetta mission was to drop the Philae lander onto the comet. The probe was successfully deployed in November 2014, becoming the first probe to land on a comet. But Philae failed to grab onto the comet and bounced around. It fell silent a few days later. Then on June 13, 2015, Philae came out of hibernation and "spoke" to mission managers at the European Space Agency for 85 seconds. This photo above was taken by the lander's mothership, the Rosetta orbiter, after the lander started its descent to the comet.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of a jet of white debris spraying from Comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko on July 29, 2015. Mission scientists said this was the brightest jet seen to date in the mission. The debris is mostly of ice coated with dark organic material.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on July 8, 2015 as the spacecraft and comet headed toward their closest approach to the sun. Rosetta was about 125 miles (201 kilometers) from the comet when it took this image.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae wakes up! Mission managers posted this cartoon of the lander yawning after it came out of hibernation on June 13, 2015. They also sent a series of tweets between the lander and its mothership, Rosetta.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet. Its 6.5 year journey around the Sun takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest. The comet hails from the Kuiper Belt, but gravitational perturbations knocked it towards the Sun where interactions with Jupiter's gravity set it on its present-day orbit.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on June 5, 2015, while the spacecraft was about 129 miles (208 kilometers) from the comet's center.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The Rosetta Mission is tracking Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its orbit around the sun. This image was taken on May 3, 2015 at a distance of about 84 miles (135 km) from the comet's center.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta snapped this wide-angle view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in September 2014. Rosetta was about 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from Earth and about 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the sun when the photo was released.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

A camera on Rosetta took this picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 22, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (31 kilometers). The nucleus is deliberately overexposed to reveal jets of material spewing from the comet. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet has shown a big increase in the amount of water its releasing, according to NASA. The space agency says about 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water was being sprayed into space every second at the end of August 2014.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta took this picture of a section of the comet's two lobes from a distance of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) on October 14, 2014.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander is shown sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after becoming the first space probe to land on a comet on November 12, 2014. The probe's harpoons failed to fire, and Philae bounced a few times. The lander was able to send back images and data for 57 hours before losing power.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's lander, Philae, wasn't able to get a good grip on the comet after it touched down. This mosaic shows Philae's movements as it bounced across the comet.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae snapped these images after landing, and mission scientists used them to create a panoramic view of the landing site. A graphic shows where the probe would be sitting in the photograph.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by a camera on the Philae lander during its descent to the comet on November 12, 2014. The lander was about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) from the surface at the time. Philae touched down on the comet about seven hours later.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, 2014, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. While Philae is the first probe to land on a comet, Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This mosaic is made of four individual images taken about 20 miles (31.8 kilometers ) from the center of the comet on November 4, 2014.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15, 2014. The box on the right shows where the lander was expected to touch down.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6, 2014. From a distance of nearly 81 miles (130 kilometers), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image, captured August 7, 2014, shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The comet's "head" can be seen in the left of the frame as it casts a shadow over the "body" in this image released August 6, 2014.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of the comet was taken on August 1, 2014, as Rosetta closed in its target.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's mission started on March 2, 2004, when it was launched on a European Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scientists think the mission will give them new clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The mission is spearheaded by the European Space Agency with key support from NASA.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This photo shows Rosetta being tested before it was wrapped in insulating blankets and loaded on a rocket for launch.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta has massive solar wings to power the spacecraft. They were unfurled and checked out at the European Space Agency's test facilities before being packed up for liftoff.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

After its closest approach to Earth in November 2007, Rosetta captured this image of the planet.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta snapped this image of Earth in November 2009. The spacecraft was 393,328 miles from Earth.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in September 2008, giving scientists amazing close-ups of the asteroid's huge crater. The asteroid is about 3 miles in diameter.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta took this image of Mars as it looped through the solar system.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image was taken by an instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars. Part of Rosetta and its solar arrays are visible.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

On July 10, 2010, Rosetta flew about 1,864 miles from asteroid Lutetia, which is 10 times larger than asteroid Steins.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Look closely at the top of this picture. See that dot? That's Saturn. Rosetta snapped the picture of asteroid Lutetia and captured Saturn in the background.

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Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

After taking pictures of Earth, Mars and asteroids, Rosetta was put into hibernation in May 2011 after it reached the outer part of the solar system. Mission managers woke it January 20, 2014.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – NASA posted this snap of astronaut James H. Newman on November 20, 1998, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the International Space Station.

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – There it goes! A still camera on a sound trigger captured this intriguing photo of an airborne frog in the foreground as NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft lifts off toward the moon. This foreground photobomber stole the show, earning this snap almost 25,000 likes.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – This one went viral too: a new view of Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It's a natural color image that shows the view as it would be seen by a human observer.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – A throwback to 2010 for the International Space Station's 15th anniversary: NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson looks down at Earth through a window on the ISS.

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – From the Hubble telescope: the crowded center of the Milky Way, showing the constellation Sagittarius. Right in the center of the image is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*, consuming clouds of dust as it affects its environment with its enormous gravitational pull.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – A historic image of Earth from the moon, taken on July 20, 1969, from Apollo 11.

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – To celebrate the launch of Mars probe MAVEN on November 18, NASA showed off this mosaic from the Viking 1 Orbiter, which passed by the planet over 30 years ago, on February 22, 1980.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – A Soyuz spacecraft carrying new International Space Station residents Oleg Kotov, Mike Hopkins and Sergey Ryazanskiy arrives at the space station in September.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – Earth on September 7, as seen by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, which looks out for atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as flash floods and hurricanes.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – Drifting away: three nanosatellites, known as Cubesats, are deployed from the ISS airlock.

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Photos:Photos from NASA's Instagram

Out-of-this-world NASA Instagram photos – Expedition 36 flight engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA is carried to the medical tent shortly after landing in Kazakhstan on September 11, having spent five and a half months on the International Space Station.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis took this picture of the International Space Station after leaving it in July 2011. Atlantis was the last shuttle to visit the station, which was first launched in 1998 and built by a partnership of 16 nations.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour initiates the station's first assembly sequence in 1998. The International Space Station includes several large modules, each launched separately and connected in space by astronauts.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The Zarya control module, on the left with the solar panels, floats above Earth with its newly attached Unity module after the first assembly sequence in December 1998.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The first crew of the International Space Station, seen on board in December 2000. From the left are cosmonaut Yuri P. Gidzenko, astronaut William M. Shepherd and cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The Endeavour crew installs the first set of U.S. solar arrays on the station in 2000.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

In March 2001, a space shuttle delivered the station's second crew and brought the first one home. It also brought Leonardo, the station's first Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, to the station. Leonardo carried supplies and equipment.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

In September 2006, the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the space station, delivering solar wings and a new truss.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The space shuttle Discovery leaves the space station in March 2008 after its crew successfully delivered and installed the Japanese-built Kibo lab.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

The unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft connects to the space station in May 2012. It was the first private spacecraft to successfully reach an orbiting space station.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

An unmanned Russian cargo craft disconnects from the space station in April 2013. The station relies heavily on ships to bring up supplies.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency peers out of the space station's Cupola observatory on April 27. The Cupola is a dome-shaped module that allows station crew members to observe and guide activities outside the station.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is docked with the space station on May 5. Since the U.S. shuttle program ended in 2011, all crew members are ferried to and from the space station on Russian rockets.

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Photos:Notable moments of the International Space Station

A Soyuz spacecraft is seen on May 13 as it lands in Kazakhstan with Wakata and other members of the his Expedition 39 crew.

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The first of this year's planned launches, the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory, is set for February 27. The satellite will be launched from Japan in a joint venture with that country's space agency, NASA said.

A second satellite, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, is slated to go up in July from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California. Its mission is to monitor the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide blamed for rising global temperatures -- a controversial notion politically, but one accepted as fact by most scientists. The first OCO mission crashed into the sea in 2009 after failing to reach orbit.

And in November, NASA hopes to launch its Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite, designed to produce high-resolution maps of water in the soil. That can help track droughts and improve the productivity of farmland, the agency says.

Meanwhile, the two missions headed for the space station will be carried aloft by the private space contractor SpaceX, which began flying commercial cargo missions in 2013.

The ISS-RapidScat, which will record ocean winds -- important data for marine forecasts, hurricane tracking and climate research -- goes up on a SpaceX mission June 6. The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, which uses laser instruments to track small particles in the atmosphere, is scheduled for launch September 12.

The Obama administration's recent decision to support the space station through 2024 has had "a powerful enabling influence," said Julie Robinson, NASA's chief scientist for the ISS. The decision adds four years to the station's planned lifetime -- an important step when it can take up to three years to develop a new instrument, she said.

Unlike other Earth-science satellites, the station passes over different points on Earth at different times with each orbit. But while it lacks that consistency, it's also up to 400 km (250 miles) closer to the planet, Robinson said.

"When you're a little closer, you can see things in more detail," she said.